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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama offered a warm, red-carpet welcome for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House on Thursday, ending a frosty period in U.S.-Canada relations and celebrating their shared goals on climate and trade.

Obama has much in common with Trudeau, the progressive 44-year-old Liberal Party leader who took office in November. He replaced Conservative Stephen Harper, who had hectored the White House for years in a failed bid to push through U.S. approval for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

“We haven’t always conveyed how much we treasure our alliance and ties with our Canadian friends,” Obama said in a welcoming ceremony in bright sunshine on the White House’s South Lawn.

“We are two different countries but days like this remind us that we’re like one big town,” he said, praising Trudeau’s election for bringing “a new energy and dynamism” to ties between the two nations.

Trudeau’s official visit will be capped by a state dinner on Thursday, making him the first Canadian leader to be granted that honor since 1997.

“Our great countries have been friends a long time. We grew up together … and through it all, our enormous shared accomplishments speak for themselves,” Trudeau said in reply.

Americans have been captivated by the photogenic Trudeau, 44, whose father, Pierre Trudeau, was prime minister from 1968 through 1979, and again from 1980 to 1984.

Also on the agenda for Oval Office talks are plans to expedite bilateral travel and trade, and shared areas of global concern ranging from Syria to Ukraine.

The leaders are slated to hold a news conference at 11:40 a.m. (1640 GMT) in the Rose Garden.

Later, they will toast each other at a lavish state dinner with the theme of “Anticipation of Spring,” a feeling close to the hearts of Canadians, who endure long and harsh winters.

Trudeau, who is struggling at home with a soft economy and a weak Canadian dollar, campaigned on repairing strained ties.

But his visit may be overshadowed by the raucous race to succeed Obama in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Candidates on both the left and right have taken anti-free-trade positions.

Obama hopes to convince a reluctant U.S. Congress to ratify the sprawling Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact before he leaves office in January. Canada is also wrestling with the merits of the TPP.

(Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Peter Cooney and James Dalgleish)

Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama (2ndL) and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stand together during an official arrival ceremony at the White House in Washington March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

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With a deranged narcissist in the Oval Office and his lackey controlling the Department of Justice, there is no point in looking to the federal government to curb police violence. Instead, President Donald J. Trump will do everything in his power to encourage it. In the wake of protests over the murder of George Floyd, he has demanded that governors crack down on protestors: "You have to dominate. ... If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time," he told them.

Moreover, most local police authorities are under local control -- mayors, city councils, district attorneys, police chiefs, sheriffs. That's where the accountability for police misconduct begins.

<p>But Congress could take a significant step toward reining in that misconduct by passing a bill to end the practice of allowing the Pentagon to give surplus war equipment to local police departments. There is simply no good reason for police in any city -- from Washington to Wichita -- to roll down the streets in armored personnel carriers, armed with battering rams and grenade launchers. They are not going to war. American citizens are not enemy combatants.</p><p>Several Democrats have already announced their intention to introduce legislation to end the practice. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, has said he would introduce such a measure as an amendment to the all-important annual defense policy bill -- which would give it a decent shot at passing since Republicans are deeply invested in the defense bill.</p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script><p>After protests broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer, local law enforcement authorities took to the streets in armored carriers, further inflaming tensions. They showed little inclination toward restraint or de-escalation. The same thing is occurring in cities around the country right now.</p><p>Off-loading surplus military hardware to local police departments was never a good idea. The practice started back during the 1990s as violent crime peaked and local and federal authorities were feverishly devoted to winning the so-called war on drugs. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the program ramped up, doling out battlefield gear even to small towns no self-respecting terrorist ever heard of.</p><p>Law enforcement agents became enamored of images of themselves decked out like soldiers on special-ops missions. According to <em>The New York Times</em>, the website of a South Carolina sheriff's department featured its SWAT team "dressed in black with guns drawn, flanking an armored vehicle that looks like a tank and has a mounted .50-caliber gun."</p><p>Poor neighborhoods are subjected to the military-style hardware much more often than affluent ones. And the consequence of that sort of policing is often less safety, not more. When the police behave like an occupying force, the residents return the favor -- treating them with suspicion and contempt. That hardly makes it more likely that police will get the information they need to solve crimes.</p><p>The administration of President Barack Obama understood that and curbed the Pentagon program after Ferguson. In the final years of the Obama administration, the Pentagon reported that local law enforcement agencies had returned 126 tracked armored vehicles, 138 grenade launchers and 1,623 bayonets, the Times said. Pause for a moment just to consider that. Why would any police department -- even New York City's army of 36,000 officers -- need bayonets and grenade launchers? Once you implant in the heads of police officers the notion that they need battlefield gear, their use of violence against unarmed citizens escalates as a natural consequence.</p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script><p>But guess what happened when Trump took office? He removed Obama's restraints on the Pentagon program, once again allowing local law enforcement agents to go to battle against the citizens they are sworn to protect. No surprise there. In 2017, Trump gave a speech in which he urged police officers not to worry about injuring a suspect during an arrest.</p><p>Police violence against black people is a problem as old as the nation itself. It didn't start with Trump's presidency and won't end when it's over. Rather, the racist culture that is embedded among so many law enforcement agencies showed itself clearly when major police unions enthusiastically backed Trump's election. When Trump is finally gone, the campaign to eradicate that culture can begin in earnest.</p>